Curry Craft

Decided to give this place another try, even though the last experience was sub-​par (didn’t know how to make a cocktail, service was slow, food was over-​spiced). People seem to swear by the food and hate the service. Both were sub-​par. On a Saturday night, at 8 p.m., they were «out of lamb.» That’s right, three of the six meat entrees were simply not available. Kitchen and staff apparently don’t speak to one another, since I only found this out ten minutes after I ordered. Note to wait staff: communicate what you have/don’t have before someone orders. As for the food, the corn appetizer was over-​spiced and the chicken dish I eventually ordered was bland. Even though the restaurant was virtually empty, it took quite a while to deliver entrees.
An Indian restaurant that’s «out of» a major ingredient on a Saturday night doesn’t bode well for the future of the business. Nor does the fact that there were only two tables occupied — and I was sitting at one of them. Finally, to the woman who was hosting/​bartending/​just hanging out in the back: just glaring at customers when they come in can’t really be part of your job, right?
If you want quality Indian, there are several good options in RVA. I’d skip this one.

Not sure if I should rank since I didn’t eat any
And my dinner experience was as follows
Came to this Indian restaurant here, where the chef was supposed to be awesome guy, ordered my food and was waiting for 25 mins, always been hungry after ordering food because we are waiting
Things do happen, the chef in the restaurant was locked out of his house and waiting for the locksmith :)
so not sure how long that may take, so the waiter gently asked me to leave
Come hungry, leave hungrier
Second update, May 10^th
I wanted to give this place another chance and went again today. The waiter remembered not only me, but my order too from yday
Ordered a kingfisher beer, juhu chat and garbanzo beans with coconut and tamrind
Juhu chat: beautifully presented dish, with potatoes, puffed rice and I also tasted some pomegranates, which was fabulous
Garbanzo beans: to be honest I didn’t like the presentation of the dish, there was not hive to make it pretty, adding a sprig of cilantro would have made it good
Taste, it was wonderful, but beans should by be sweet (!!) that’s the only bad part on taste
Will I go there again, may be, but they should add more vegetarian items in the menu

One of the nicest Indian places in Richmond. Great food. It has an upscale, modern interior. Will definitely be back!

Couldn’t seat us despite the place was less than half full because «the kitchen is small». Wtf? Not coming back.

Great food but… don’t come here if you’re in a rush. Took TWO hours for a meal for two – entrée only, no appetizers. Only one server for entire restaurant and the kitchen help is sweet but clueless. Management, please add a server and/​or cook!

The best Indian food in RVA! We had the tomato soup, it was amazing! Veggie chick pea entrée was awesome, along with everything!!!

We read the reviews about bad service, but we were hungry for Indian food so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, when we entered, an agitated woman strode up to the front and told us they weren’t seating. The restaurant was half empty and it was almost two hours before closing so I have no idea what was going on. There was no explanation. No apology. Just a rude boot out the door. As we left it was I who said «I’m sorry «and I am. I won’t make the mistake of going here again.

First time in Richmond visiting from DC. Stopped in to get some food before they closed since we got in a little late. We walked in and were told the kitchen was probably closed. The lady went to the back to find out and returned to seat us. I’m guessing this really annoyed her that we came in late, but she didn’t have to sit us if she didn’t want. She offered. Anyways, she proceeded to be extremely rude, huffing and puffing, banging doors, slamming water pitchers, and just making the entire experience uncomfortable for us. The tension was palpable and unnecessary. Just trying to enjoy my night. I would have happily gone elsewhere if turned away. Just do that next time. Don’t seat me. Food was ok.

This one of the best indian food that u cane get at richmond area, very clean, food cooked at the same time, im glad i find this restaurant

Food and ambience are great BUT service is TERRIBLE. The place is entirely empty yet it takes 40 minutes for a soup and another 20 for the 2 main courses! You know that saying: did you go kill the goat? They must
This place could be great but the service is seriously BAD always. This is my 4^th time here and I might not return

It’s sad to see how far Curry Craft has fallen. It used to be my go-​to for great Indian food (and the food is still very good), but the service and the portion sizes have become so unbearable as to make the quality of food not worth it.
I’ll start with the worst of it: the service. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a waitress who has actively avoided the table as much as the one we had last night. Every time she would come near our table each of us would try to make eye contact or call out to her without success. She would then disappear for 10 minutes at a time only to reappear and have us fail at getting her attention all over again. We went half an hour with empty water and wine glasses before we finally had to get up to ask the other waitress for refills. At a place that serves spicy food, something as simple as water can become pretty darn important. Our dishes finally arrived an hour after we had put in the orders. We also had to get up from our table after a long period of waiting to ask the other waitress for more rice as ours was clearly winning this night’s round of hide-​and-​seek. On the rare occasion that we did get our waitress’s attention, she made each request seem like such an imposition for her. The attitude would be one thing if the restaurant were packed, but it was only half full. At the end of the night I wish we could have given the tip to the other waitress for doing her best to fill in for her coworker.
As for the food, it really is quite good. The chef clearly knows what he’s doing, and considering that the food has taken reasonable amounts of time to come out in past visits, I have to assume that the hour wait for the food falls on the waitstaff, not the kitchen. The portion sizes, however, can be laughably small, especially for the price. $ 4 for a single piece of naan is outrageous, and my $ 17 chicken dish came with 7 small chunks of meat. I doubt it added up to a single chicken breast half. In the end, it doesn’t matter how good the food is if you hardly have any of it. I left quite hungry that night.
Another disappointing change is that Curry Craft has eliminated their cocktail menu entirely. My boyfriend tried to order an old standard of theirs and was told that they did not have the ingredients for it anymore. It’s sad to see this side of their business go since craft cocktails were one of the biggest things that distinguished Curry Craft from all the other Indian restaurants in town.
To top our night off, when we finally received the two checks there were a number of errors (as our waitress refused to write anything down). An extra glass of wine was added to my friend’s and an order of naan was placed on the wrong bill. Considering the only way it could have taken longer to find our waitress was if she were hiding out in an Abbottabad compound, we had to once again get up to ask her coworker to please make the corrections.
From other reviews I can tell that I’m not the only one who’s experienced good food but abysmal service. I hope that Curry Craft gets back on track because it really used to be one of the best restaurants in Richmond. For now, though, I can’t give Curry Craft more than two stars.

Too expensive for the product. The food is pretty well made and spiced but would be adequately priced at 10 dollars a dish. Definitely not the best Indian food in town. Further, the portions are small for american standards so don’t share. They are appropriate for one person.

Food amazing. The owner Mel, cooks the food himself. The bar tender tonight is holding an intriguing conversation all while working feverishly all over the place. The owner brought out a free appetizer of some sort which was very nice. I had a old fashioned to sip on while I waited. The staff is very friendly. I love the menu… very simple. I order the lamb vin’d alho… this place is very low key, very sexy. Perfect for hanging with friends but even better for date night. Not to busy but not dead. I really am Impressed. The bar tender name is Collin btw… look for him on weekends.

Went to Curry Craft for a friends 50^th birthday party. The food was excellent. Had tasting menus for 20 people. Food was excellent. The escargot was my favorite. The only item that was not liked was the chicken dishes as they were a little dry. The prawns and the lamb was excellent. Will return.

Small menu, service was incredibly slow (only one waitress on staff), food was mediocre at best. Waitress didn’t know how to pour a beer without overflowing the glass with a bunch of head. Felt like the prices were high given other places I’ve been to. Lemon Cuisine of India is hands down still my favorite. We only tried this place because Lemon was closed temporarily b/​c of a water pipe burst.
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this place nor will I be coming back.

This place is fab. Such an improvement over their previous tenant Bonvenue, this little hole in the wall knows how to make some great Indian food. While I feel my other 4 star fave Lemon Cuisine is more traditional, Curry Craft takes some impressive risks with Indian food. I’ve had a range of dishes here, some were chalk board offerings (like the escargot — which I recommend you get btw) and a tofu dish which I can’t remember the name of, but I’m sure it had peas in it. The other dish I’ve had that I can remember (and not for good reasons) is the the lamb vin d’ alho. It burned my mouth off. Granted I was warned it was super spicy, but I can handle spicy… really spicy. Aka sriratcha to me is sissy stuff, akin to ketchup. It was painful and brought tears to my eyes. I went through 6 glasses of water (which I had to beg the bartender for) and 3 glasses of wine. Mind you once the initial pain wore off I felt kind of high (which I guess is the reason some people go through this kind of pain), but I didn’t/couldn’t enjoy the food. Luckily there wasn’t much on the plate and I had filled up with some mushroom and goat cheese naan (another must have) before my meal. Josh has gotten a lot of the veggie dishes, including the malai palak-​chenna — which is a bewitching combo of tender spinach, cheese, black lemon and ginger. Wine selection is great and I guess beer too, although I don’t drink it. Food 5 (I’ll forgive a star for the burnt mouth incident… I was warned)
Ambience — 5. Now I love little hole in the wall places with cute little bathrooms in the basement… so long as mice don’t run across my feet (see my review of sticky rice). Beautiful albeit small dining room, cute little bar (where I always sit).
Service — 4 here is another sticky point for me. Usually it’s spot on, with the chef making an appearance sometimes to offer you a bite of something he’s working on, but the bartenders are hit or miss. Ignoring my empty water glass while I’m visibly struggling to breathe is negligent. Talking to us while others clearly need your help is also not ok. I like conversation as much as the next person but don’t ignore others in an attempt to win a bigger tip from us. It makes me extremely uncomfortable. Other than that I really cannot complain.
I highly recommend this place if you want non-​traditional Indian food. It’s bangin’. Just beware the vin d’alho…

Finally — a successful mix of Indian inspiration and Western influence!
First of all, it’s one of those modern Indian places that has waifish blonde waitstaff (who were very nice, by the way) and décor in the way of contemporary urban elegance. One of the first things you notice when you walk in — is that it doesn’t smell!
The chef, a native of Pondicherry who moved here from London, seems to know exactly what he’s doing and makes all kinds of interesting deviations from the standard fare. Like chaat that was better than any chaat I’ve ever had, and had cool unexpected ingredients like pomegranate seeds — delicious and hitting more notes than chaat usually hits. The other dish I’m going to strongly recommend is the lamb curry. I wasn’t even hungry but I couldn’t stop eating it — it was soooo good!

Unfortunately this review is based on my first impression & not the food since I didnt have an opportunity to eat here
stopped by last weekend w/​family for a bite to eat… the waitress/​hostess that approached us was very Rude, she lacked tact and courtesy… she didnt even greet us properly as soon as we came thru the door the first thing out her mouth was I cant seat Ya’ll you’ll have to wait at least an hour I was shocked not at what she said but how she said it we were fine w/​going elsewhere if the wait was too long … we actually expected it… there are many quality Indian Restaurants in RVA where great tasting food is accompanied w/​awesome customer service… maybe someday i’ll give this place another shot hopefully the service will be better at that time

Allow me to first state that, in general, Indian food tends to have a fairly narrow range of rating possibilities for me (typically 3.2 to 3.8). It is difficult to have really bad or really outstanding Indian food as it often has a good basic quality to it.
That being said, Curry Craft was good. The service was friendly. The food was well prepared and everyone enjoyed it. I will definitely go back.
I would give this restaurant a 3.5

This place is super great! It’s kind of empty but maybe that’s a good thing since I won’t have to wait for a table next time, too (there seemed to be a healthy stream of people picking up take-​out though, which I think is probably popular for Indian cuisine). The décor is kind of urban chic but comes off a bit afterthought-​y but that’s another issue. I want to talk about the food!
The mango lassi was delicious; smooth, fresh, tart, and creamy. We wanted the prawns but they were sold out so went for the paneer. While food overall took quite a long time to get to the table (this is a good thing, it means they’re making everything fresh and it certainly tasted that way), it was well worth the wait. The paneer was light and came drizzled with a tart tamarind reduction and potatoes and onion. For entrees, we got one of the special mushroom curries and vindaloo, both lamb. They were robustly flavored with distinct spices.
For the long wait of the food, complementary munchies would have been appreciated, perhaps some naan or chips or something. It was also a bit on the expensive side, especially for the vegetarian versions of the entrees which were only about $ 1 – 2 cheaper than their meaty versions. They do have a fixed price option on Thursday which I would be apt to come back and try!